|| 20 February 2020

ThermoPro TP03A: Saving My Yogurt — and perhaps my stomach

I have never been a gadget person. But I do try to equip myself with good tools to make whatever I am attempting more likely of success.

A good tool I have recently acquired is the ThermoPro TP03A Instant Read Food Meat Thermometer. ($13) Not only is it helping me with my yogurt making, but it might save me from stomach cancer. More about that latter useful function later in this Nouvelles.

I am making yogurt again. My supermarket stopped carrying the Freanna, a Dutch-Frisian style yogurt made in New Mexico, that I loved. So back to homemade.

In yogurt making, the temperature at which you add yogurt starter to the milk is important. My measuring spoon thermometer that came with my decades-old Salton yogurt maker no longer gives an accurate reading. The candy thermometer I “inherited” from my mother was not sufficiently precise for yogurt. I was ready to go digital.

Researching homemade yogurt blogs, the ThermoPro TP03A was the one I found most often recommended. I bought one. And I love it.

The readout in great big numbers is easy for my eyes — often I don’t need to punch on the readout light. The thermometer fits comfortably in my hand, and it is easy to operate with only one hand. I can switch back and forth between Fahrenheit and Celsius readings. And if I am checking meat temperatures to make sure I have reached safe internal temperatures, there is a little chart on the back of the ThermoPro to tell me the proper temperatures for beef, chicken, pork, and such. The thermometer has a internal magnet that lets me park the device on any handy metal surface.

Now about the stomach cancer connection. About the time I bought my ThermoPro, I read an article that medical research had found that people who drank their tea hotter than 140 F. (60 C.) degrees showed a significantly higher incidence of stomach cancer than those who drank their hot tea below this temperature.

I like my hot tea hot. At what temperature was I drinking it? I had no idea. But I did know that from time to time I burned my tongue or the roof of my mouth taking a sip of tea when it was just-brewed — or just-reheated in the microwave.

So I began taking temperature readings with my ThermoPro. Sometimes my tea was reading out above 153 F. (67 C.). Oh dear.

Now I with my little red digital thermometer, it is easy to check my tea to make sure it is in the safe-to-drink temperature range.

be chic, stay slim — Anne Barone